TRIBUNE-REVIEW (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) 06 September 05 Crocus the traveling alligator is incarcerated after river swim (Liz Hayes)
A jail cell in Tarentum's police station briefly held an unusual inmate Monday evening: Crocus the alligator.
The 2-foot-long American alligator escaped from his backyard pen on Stieren Avenue in Brackenridge yesterday and waddled his way to the Allegheny River in Tarentum, where he was found about 7:30 p.m. nearly a mile from his home.
A group of friends gathered around a boat dock near Allegheny Street spotted the reptile among the weeds along the river bank.
Nicki Hilliard, of Tarentum, said she saw the alligator and shouted to her friends before she took off after it. She said she was surprised it could move as fast as it did.
"Nobody believed me, but I knew what it was," she said.
Her friends, including Nathan Hamm and Jeremy Blackburn, of Fawn; Brian Maskas, of Tarentum; and Zachary Cairnes, of Harrison, propped a board in front of the alligator to keep it from escaping and threw a towel over it.
But it was Hilliard who worked up the courage to grab its snout and keep its mouth shut until they could pick it up and put it in a small beverage cooler.
"She was brave enough to grab his mouth," said Hamm's mother, Ruth. "She said she'd seen 'Crocodile Hunter' and knew you had to keep its mouth shut."
The group turned the alligator over to Tarentum police.
Sgt. Jim Newcomer said he didn't believe it was the first alligator to inhabit the department's holding cells. He thought another gator caught several years ago was turned over to the Pittsburgh Zoo.
Police planned to keep Crocus in a small metal cage until they could find the owner.
But Belinda Thomson quickly learned police had an alligator in custody and came to the station about 9 p.m. to see if it was her missing pet.
Thomson said she's had a problem with neighborhood cats moving aside the fence in her backyard, allowing him to escape. She said he got loose once before but didn't go far.
She said she was skeptical at first when she heard where her pet was found.
"I didn't think he'd be able to cross the highway," she said, referring to First Avenue. "I can't believe he didn't get hit by a car."
She said she had feared him lost for good or even dead, but was glad to be reunited with her pet of five years.
Thomson watched as Hilliard and her friends crammed into the holding cell and took pictures with the reptile.
"He's probably scared to death," Thomson said.
Eventually Crocus -- named after the croaking sounds he makes when he's hungry -- was turned over to his grateful owner.
"He's well traveled now," Thomson said.
Crocus the traveling alligator is incarcerated after river swim
